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Uptake of heavy metals from the soil by perennial legumes was measured over two- and four-year periods, and their accumulation measured in succeeding crops of winter wheat. Of the legumes tested: lucerne, red clover, sand sainfoin, white sweet clover, bird's foot trefoil, and eastern goatweed, sainfoin exhibits the greatest bioaccumulation over 2 years but all the studied legumes are effective. Moreover, we observe optimisation of the environment for the following crops, including the conversion of mobile forms of heavy metals in the soil into hard-to-reach forms that cannot migrate into the plant under simultaneous influence on the biological and mineral components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986 contaminated tracts of Europe with radionuclides. In Ukraine, two million hectares with radiation levels greater than 5.55 × 1011 Bq/km2 were removed from agriculture and 137Cs, with a half-life of 30 years, is still with us. Phytoremediation by vegetation that accumulates toxic elements has been widely applied. White sweet clover (Melilotus albus) accumulates caesium and heavy metals in its biomass but, at the same time, produces nectar and pollen of a safely low level of 137Cs; so this culture is safe for beekeeping in the Chernobyl contamination zone. Growing M. albus over two years (2021–2) on a sandy sod podzolic soil within the Zhytomyr region increased the soil's easily-hydrolysable N by 29.9%, decreased mobile phosphorus by 18.2%, and mobile forms of Cd by 38.5%, Hg by 25%, Pb by 24.5%, Cu by 18.5%, Zn by 14.9%, 137Cs by 8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]